The bull is in the china shop

I’m sure you’ve heard the quip, “He’s like a bull in a china shop.” This usually refers to someone who moves around without any awareness of the mess he’s leaving behind as he roams from room to room. An AI description on the internet says this:

“’Bull in a china shop’ is an idiom that describes someone who is clumsy, careless, or destructive. For example, you might describe someone as a ‘bull in a china shop’ if they break things or cause damage when they don't need to.”

Putting on my metaphysical cap, I realize this is what we’re seeing right now as we watch the wanton destruction being thrown around by Elon Musk and his DOGE crew. If you’re like me, you cringe with every bit of news we’re given about who’s being fired and which offices are being dismantled.

Most of us realize the size of government needs to be assessed and restructured. But I don’t think anyone, even the MAGA faithful, ever thought this would be done like a bull in a china shop.

We expected some sort of serious thought and planning to go into the downsizing of our government. We certainly didn’t expect entire departments to be closed without the people doing the closing even realizing what the department in question actually did.

And as I witness all of this, I ask myself, “Is this how many of us approach changes in our lives? Do we orchestrate big changes in our lives without planning, assessing, and organizing? And could this be the reason our change efforts frequently don’t work out so well?”

My response is, “Yes!” Too often, we make a quick decision that we need to make some changes on our lives. Perhaps this pertains to something such as a sour relationship, our health and fitness, employment situation, our residence, or the vehicle we drive. Although the next step would be best if it involved a thoughtful appraisal of what changes we need and the best way to go about making them, frequently we are like the bull in a china store or a DOGE worker in the federal government.

We start slashing and dashing about without an informed plan. Then we wonder what went wrong, think we’re not ready for change, and, perhaps, just continue to accept the way things are while being self-critical of our failure to change.

Here’s a good structure for making changes:

1. Identify the change we want to make.

2. Ask why we’re making the change.

3. What results do we want to experience?

4. Make a list of what needs to happen to support our change.

5. Research the best ways to make the change.

6. Make a plan we think would work for us.

7. Get support in place that we might need.

8. Act.

The next time you want to make changes in your life, remember you’ll be more successful if you go through steps 1 through 7 and not just jump from 1 to 8. Maybe a new rallying cry for effective change could be: don’t be a DOGE!

Living in Grace and Ease,

Krysta